'I know I ruined my life'

12-time OWI offender ponders his life from prison

Behind the gray walls of Fox Lake Correctional Institution, Daniel Frisch — in his pale green prison jumpsuit, wire-rimmed glasses and thinning, sandy hair — is counting the days until he is a free man.

The 53-year-old Manitowoc man is one of about 30 people in Wisconsin with at least a dozen drunken driving convictions. He has more than 1,000 days to go before he is released.

Despite his dozen convictions — including the one that landed him at Fox Lake — Frisch doesn't see himself as an alcoholic. He was never involved in a serious crash or killed anyone as a result of his driving, so he has a hard time understanding why his actions are criminal.

"Maybe that's part of my problem; I don't really look at it as a crime," Frisch said. "It's hard for me to accept punishment for something I grew up thinking was OK. In some ways I guess I still think it's OK, but I know I have to stop."

Although he underwent required alcohol assessments for his past convictions, he said he has never been required to undergo intensive alcohol treatment and was not offered medication to help him stop drinking. Frisch also never had an ignition interlock device installed on a vehicle. He never had a car immobilized or seized, because these actions were not required by law at the time of his convictions.

He was allowed to legally register one vehicle after another with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, because registration is not affected by a conviction for operating while intoxicated, or OWI.

Frisch did not end up in prison until his eighth drunken driving conviction, in 2002.

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Daniel Frisch, who is in the middle of serving a 7-year prison term at Fox Lake Correctional Institution for his 12th OWI, confesses that he still has a hard time seeing his behavior as criminal. (Nov. 2014)
Dan Young

Today, halfway through a seven-year prison sentence, he is forced to remain sober. He does not want to stop drinking.

But he knows he must.

Frisch recognizes his behavior caused him to miss out on what he sees as a "normal life."

"What did I miss out on? That chance to find a perfect woman, get married, have kids, have a good job," Frisch said. "It kind of kills me I didn't live my life like that. I wasted my life. I really did."

A lifelong habit

Alcohol, driving were part of growing up

Frisch grew up in Manitowoc. His large, close-knit family camped, played cards, marked birthdays and celebrated holidays as a group.

Alcohol almost always was involved, he said.

"Dad would tip a few, then drive us all home," Frisch said. "That was how I grew up. That's what everyone did."

By the time Frisch was a sophomore at Manitowoc's Lincoln High School, he was a regular drinker, he said. Drugs, including heroin, also were a big part of his life.

In 1979, with $200 in high school graduation money, Frisch bought enough heroin to start his own trafficking business, dealing to friends, relatives and neighbors as a way to pay for his own increasing habit.

“Dad would tip a few, then drive us all home. That was how I grew up. That's what everyone did.”

Daniel Frisch

In 1981, he was caught dealing heroin. He went to prison for three years. In 1987, he was caught again. This time, Frisch served four years at Waupun Correctional Institution.

After his release in 1991, Frisch moved to Oregon, a small community near Madison. That's when the drinking really began.

"I started going to bars; it was fun, it was a way to meet people, and it wasn't illegal. But then the OWIs started piling up pretty quick," Frisch recalled.

Brown County Judge Donald Zuidmulder, who is a former prosecutor in Green Bay, said many repeat drunken drivers — "almost across the board" — rationalize their behavior and seem not to understand just how wrong it is.

"These are otherwise good people," Zuidmulder said. "They go to work, go to church on Sunday. They maintain sobriety for a few months or a few years. Then they drink and drive again. They are clearly dangerous, but they don't think they are."

The judge has seen his share of these cases. Last year, 1,409 motorists were convicted of drunken driving in Brown County. About 41 percent were repeat offenders and 30 were convicted of their fifth OWI offense. Another 28 were convicted of their sixth — or higher — OWI offense.

Insignificant consequences

Convictions did not alter behavior

Frisch was charged with his first OWI in 1992, when he was 31.Over a six-year period, he had four more. He repeatedly drove with a revoked license, and was picked up for shoplifting in 1999. His 12th OWI arrest came in 2009 after he drove the wrong way down a busy Manitowoc street.

The longest jail sentence was handed down in 2000, when he spent six months —the state's mandatory minimum sentence at the time — in the Dane County Jail for a seventh OWI offense.

After Frisch was released from jail in August 2000, his life continued on a downward spiral. He continued to drink heavily, and though his license was revoked, he drove often — usually, Frisch said, because someone just needed a ride.

"I was always trying to help out, you know?" Frisch said. "Giving people a ride didn't seem like any big deal."

In July 2001, he was arrested for the eighth time, in Racine County, after he narrowly avoided crashing into an oncoming sedan. His blood-alcohol content, according to the police report, was 0.212 percent — more than double the state's 0.10 percent legal limit to be considered drunk at that time. The limit has since been reduced to 0.08 percent.

Spiraling downward

Girlfriend's death followed by ninth OWI arrest

Frisch said he was happier in the months after his eighth arrest, even knowing he faced the threat of prison. While out on bond, he had a job. He was in close contact with his family. He renewed a relationship with a former girlfriend, 27-year-old Mickey Rosas. He stayed sober.

That sobriety came to an abrupt end when Rosas overdosed on heroin and died in a Madison apartment in 2002. Shortly afterward, Frisch was arrested a ninth time for OWI.

Daniel Frisch has the name of an ex-girlfriend that died of a heroin overdose tattoed on his arm.
(Photo:
Dan Young/Gannett Wisconsin Media
)

"Everything was going so good, you know? But when Mickey died it was like I just couldn't handle it," said Frisch, who has a large tattoo in Mickey's memory on his left shoulder. "So I drank."

Lab tests taken after his latest arrest showed he had a blood-alcohol content of 0.30 percent — triple the legal limit to be intoxicated. Frisch cried when he was arrested, worried he would never see his dog again.

He didn't.

A judge in Dane County sentenced Frisch to 15 months in prison, where officials put Frisch on a waiting list for an intensive alcohol treatment program for inmates. One month later the program was terminated, and Frisch said no alternative treatment program was offered.

After his 2003 release from prison, Frisch moved to Jacksonville, Florida, where a family member lived and worked. Wisconsin court records show Frisch was nabbed twice more for drinking and driving — his 10th and 11th convictions — during his three years in Florida. Frisch claims he has no memory of those offenses.

"They say I did it, I guess, and I know I had a reckless driving," he said. "Some stuff happened in Florida, for sure. But I don't remember any OWIs."

Convicted at trial

Frisch sentenced to seven years

His 12th OWI conviction happened after motorists alerted Manitowoc police that a black Ford F-150 matching Frisch's vehicle was being driven erratically in the area. Officers arrested Frisch in his driveway.

Daniel Frisch has his hands folded as he is interviewed at the Fox Lake Correctional Institution.
(Photo:
Dan Young/Ganniett Wisconsin Media
)

He took the case to trial and was convicted Dec. 14, 2010. Despite a court order not to drink, Frisch appeared at his Feb. 10, 2011, sentencing with alcohol on his breath and a blood-alcohol content of 0.06 percent. The hearing had to be postponed until later in the day so he could sober up.

Manitowoc County Judge Darryl Deets sentenced Frisch to seven years in prison followed by five years of extended supervision. The sentence is the maximum allowed by state lawfor a 12th offense, and his license is revoked until three years after his release.

Frisch is appealing his conviction. He will be eligible to reinstate his driver's license in 2020,at age 59.

Hope for the future

Prison a time to write, read, reflect

As an inmate at the medium-security Fox Lake prison in south-central Wisconsin, one day blends into the next for Frisch. He writes to his sister frequently and he reads as many newspapers as he can get his hands on. He reflects on the many bad choices he's made.

“I know I ruined my life and I wish I wouldn't have. If I had more to live for, more of a life, maybe I wouldn't be here. But I can't say there were really any rules or laws that could have made me stop drinking.”

Daniel Frisch

"I know I ruined my life and I wish I wouldn't have," Frisch said. "If I had more to live for, more of a life, maybe I wouldn't be here. But I can't say there were really any rules or laws that could have made me stop drinking."

Even without a license, Frisch said he had easy access to vehicles.

To avoid getting caught driving without a license, he sometimes stole license plates from similar vehicles. He did that to fool police who might run a routine plate check and think someone else was behind the wheel.

Nothing was a serious deterrent from drinking and getting behind the wheel, Frisch said.

Sobriety checkpoints — illegal in Wisconsin but common in most states — would not have deterred Frisch from driving drunk, he said.

"I would have just found a way around any checkpoint. I guess what I'm saying is, no matter what rules there are, there's a way to beat them," Frisch said.

Because of his incarceration, he has been in a state of forced sobriety for 3 1/2 years — the longest stretch in his adult life. He says he misses cigarettes more than he misses alcohol.

Frisch said he will spend his remaining time in prison working toward a better life. He is earning a welding certificate and will enter alcohol and drug abuse counseling next year. He does not want to stop drinking, but realizes now that he needs to, or he will risk wasting more years in prison.

"I think what would have changed me is having responsibility in my life; having a wife, a girlfriend, with kids. I didn't have that, never had that," Frisch said. "I didn't have any responsibilities, really. This time, though, they got me pretty good. It's time to give it up."